C'est Vrai! (It's True!)

And now presenting a list of the TOP 10 OXFORDIAN FACTS:

10) Shakespeare didn't mention the plays, poems, or theatre that he is supposed be known for

9) Shakespeare only had a grammar school education, and it not known to have traveled outside of Stratford and London

8) Six years after Shakespeare was buried in an anonymous grave, a book by Henry Peacham titled The Compleat Gentleman (1616) listed the greatest poets of the Elizabethan era (when Shakespeare lived). Shakespeare, in any variation of spelling, is not mentioned in this or three subsequent editions of the book. (Edward de Vere, however, heads the list.)

7) Henry Wriothesley, the Third Earl of Southampton, is thought the be the person to whom most of the Shakespearean sonnets are addressed. Oxford knew him closely: they lived in the same home.

6) De Vere had two master's degrees, spent three yeas studying law, traveled throughout Italy (where some Shakespearean plays are set), and knew politics and court life.

5) Oxford's life mirrors Shakespearean works in multiple ways, including:

- He was once captured by pirates, like Hamlet.
- He, like King Lear, inherited three daughters.
- He was put in jail for siring an illegitimate child, like a character in Measure for Measure.

4) Oxford was the author of poems and plays. In 1586, Queen Elizabeth began paying him $:1,000 a year without evident reason. King James continued paying the sum until Oxford's death. In the 1660's, Rev. Dr. John Ward noted that Shakespeare wrote two plays each year "and for that had an allowance so large that he spent at the rate of $:1,000 a year."

3) De Vere published plays and sonnets under his own name, but stopped doing so in 1593. That very year, manuscripts began appearing under the name "William Shake-speare."

2) Over 1/4 of the 1,066 marked passages in de Vere's Bible are found in Shakespearean works; this includes strange names and phrases like "Achitopel" and "weaver's beam."


(And the moment you've all been waiting for! ...)

::TA-DA!::

#1) The name "William Shake-speare" indicates de Vere: on his family crest, there was a lion SHAKING A SPEAR!!